Anyone else around here like developing new dahlias? I enjoy browsing through the catalogs as much as the next person, but there's a satisfaction to breeding ones own. If there's any interest, let's try to post a few breeding results here this season?

All of my current seedlings are from dinnerplate parents, and a few have interesting foliage. No blooms yet, but this year I've got anti Japanese beetle strategies in place.

Anti-Japanese beetle strategies? How well did they work?

By accident, I discovered that the Japanese Beetles seek out marigolds and pretty much left my dahlias (and celosia) alone as long as I dealt with them on the marigolds.

As for breeding, it is of interest, but having just grown my first dahlias this year, I've got a few more years before I have well formed opinions any given cultivar.

I'd be interested in seeing your seedlings and hearing more about the ins and outs of hybridizing Dahlias.

I hybridize Daylilies, and swore I wouldn't let that bug bite me for Dahlias, but .... Sure would be fun to grow some from seed.

I grew some, many years ago, from a packet offered by Thompson & Morgan. Which ought to give you some clue, as to how long ago, that was ! They were supposed to be "Cactus" flowered, mix & I couldn't really have been much more disappointed, than I was ...
But, it was mainly just for fun, & out of simple curiosity, as I really didn't expect anything spectacular to come of it, anyway.

I just mainly wanted to see, how'd they do, in the way of starting a bunch of Dahlia from seeds & see how they bloomed, when they finally had flowers...
It is just so much easier, to ''select" tubers of cultivars you prefer & order those, of ones you like. While , these days, it seems "You can't always get, what you want..." as at times they some times get mixed up & it isn't anything like what you ordered, or bought ! That's just life & labels can be incorrect...

It may be of some help, to try & study the history of Dahlias & that may help you out somewhat.
It would be a little different, if the parentage were known, on ones you'd selected to use, as your parent plants, for the crosses , with which you intended to make seeds from...

Maybe there is a book, perhaps that would be helpful. Or some articles online. I'm just not so certain, they are very predictable, as to the results you tend to get, from Dahlia, when you grow them from seeds, as I think they often tend to be quite variable. But, that's just my opinion.
I'm not sure there is even any information within the Database, about growing Dahlia from seeds.

It is probably difficult enough, just to even try & get any results, nearly like you might expect, to get, compared to the parent plants you crossed, to produce the seeds.
Unless you are crossing two plants, from within the same flower types, & then you may get something close, to it. In other words, you 'd have to sow quite a number of seeds, to ever get anything nearly worth growing on, or even ever multiplying it.

ShawnSteve said:. In other words, you 'd have to sow quite a number of seeds, to ever get anything nearly worth growing on, or even ever multiplying it.

In the world of peonies, I read that one noted cross-breeder said that he planted 1000 peonies in order to find 1 or 2 potential keepers. If you think about it, the resultant plant has to have good qualities while being distinct enough in appearance to warrant further testing. Probably more than a decade would pass while you continued to look and study.

Dahlias would have a faster timeline, with year 2 probably being when you get to see flowers. Needing to lift the plant makes it a bit more challenging since that it a great opportunity for things to go wrong.

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Anti beetle: according to a J C Raulston Arboretum guy (don't recall his name, unfortunately) four o'clocks (Mirabilis jalapa) are poisonous to Japanese beetles. So, I planted a boat-load of those from seed. Also, hand picking into soapy water... Because it pretty much can't be avoided. All in all, it worked wonderfully. I only saw minimum damage to the uppermost foliage of my cherry tree, none to the roses, and they were gone entirely by the time my dahlias began to bloom.

And, as far as having to plant a gazillion or so dahlia seeds to get any worthwhile, not so much? I mean yeah, I get a few I don't like every year, and a few more that are nice but nothing special. However, there's always something I at least save into the following year. That means that out of, say, ten to fifteen totally new plants each year, when I get one or two keepers, my 'success' rate is up to twenty percent. As opposed to the rate closer to a tenth of a percent from peonies, this is pretty excellent.

And you're right that that rate is heavily influenced by the selection of seeds. I've never grown from a packet before, only seeds collected from what I felt were the nicest of my own plants. I don't hand pollinate, but I do select one of the two parent plants, and if I want something not to have any input then I cut it back hard a few days before the preferred parent plant opens any blooms.

For example, the pics below. The first two are this year's successful plants. I like the form and fullness of the first, and the color contrast from central to outermost petals of the second. The second does have the curly petals of the parent as well. The third is one that I dislike, mostly for the color. I'm just not into solids (or highlighters). The fourth is one that simply looks like the parent plant, but less full.

First, thanks for sharing the pictures - lovely looking flowers!

SummerStorm93 said:Anti beetle: according to a J C Raulston Arboretum guy (don't recall his name, unfortunately) four o'clocks (Mirabilis jalapa) are poisonous to Japanese beetles. So, I planted a boat-load of those from seed.

I actually already have some Mirabilis jalapa seed, so hearing this is a bit of serendipity. I will certainly give it a try. The nibblings on the fern-like leaves of the marigolds isn't as noticeable as say the leaves of a dahlia - which is part of why I was happy to see the japanese beetles on the marigolds. I did pick them off, but used a boot rather than water.

I think that the lower success rate is based on the plant being distinctly different enough to warrant it's own name. Given the immense size of the list of cultivars, one would have to be very knowledgeable to avoid creating near duplicates of another cultivar. Given how quickly dahlia varieties disappear, I suspect that there is a great deal of recreating the wheel....